Last night saw the launch of the Samsung Omnia, the latest in the line of iPhone killers to be thrown at the wall, and it certainly raised a few eyebrows, if largely for all the wrong reasons.

My experience of the event ran like this. I was invited along - which is always nice - and then, just before the event, was told that I wouldn’t be getting my hands on one that evening and actually I was rather pleased with the Samsung pr member’s honesty on the matter.

So, not particularly wishing to worship at the house of Samsung for no particular reason, I did what many good journalist would do and sacked it off in favour of the press release I would doubtless get by e-mail instead. As it turns out, I’m rather glad I didn’t go after reading Ian Williams’s account of the evening.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and slag this handset off for Samsung’s mistake. I doubt they’re feeling too clever today and, more to the point, it’s not fair on you. It may be that the Samsung Omnia is the perfect phone. So, here is what I’ve picked up about the Omnia:

It’s got a reasonable size 3.2″ touchscreen display with a 240 x 400 resolution which comes with an easy to lose stylus so you can poke about on Windows Mobile 6.1. I know I said I’d be fair but that’s more of comment on my dislike of Windows Mobile than anything else.

The Omnia’s got all the bits ‘n pieces you need, ticking all the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 7.2Mbs HSDPA, quad band, USB compatible, FM radio and GPS boxes you could ask for, as well as a 10-hour talk time battery and, best of all, a 5-megapixel camera - the one area which let’s the iPhone 3G down in a very big way.

It’s available, as of today, on all the usual networks in either a 8GB or 16GB version and, for example, just having a peak now…

…you can get the 16GB version on Orange for £200 if you go for a £25 per month contract for 18 months, or if you want to spend £40 each month instead, the handset will only set you back £50. Still, at that rate, I’d rather buy an iPhone.

So there you go. The Samsung Omnia i900. Buy it if you want to. Don’t if you don’t.

[Thanks: http://www.techdigest.tv]